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Highlands Market project at 32nd and Julian draws fire

Duey Kratzer, owner of Mondo Vino, wants to build a four-story mixed use project which would house a market and as many as sixteen units at Julian and 32nd. But Kratzer, whose plans are more accommodating to the wishes of the community than many recent developers’ projects have been, has encountered opposition from members of the West Highland Neighborhood Association who say the project is too tall.

The project would be new construction on four lots, including the current location of the Green Fuse.

Kratzer’s project has been scheduled for a Planning Board hearing later in the month, but that hearing may be postponed pending further neighborhood input. Some area residents, including longtime neighborhood activist Mary Anderies, fear that Kratzer’s forty-foot high project would open the door for other tall projects, perhaps with the backing of the city’s proposed Main Street Zoning. Others suggest that Main Street zoning is unlikely for the 32nd Avenue corridor, and that a thirteen story building already exists directly across the street from Kratzer’s proposed development.

District One Councilman Garcia is emphatic that 32nd Avenue not be a site for Main Street zoning.

“In my support of the Main Street zoning language (last year), it was never my intention that 32nd or Tennyson be subject to Main Street zoning. Main Street zoning is not the best choice and it was never expected to be applied to 32nd Avenue. It’s not suitable.”

Main Street is a new city zoning type that allows for mixed use project combining business and residential, at higher densities and heights, along transit corridors.

The 32nd and Julian project will now likely move forward as a planned unit development, or PUD. That process involves far more public input.

Kratzer’s project would create thirty-six underground parking spaces, and retain the surface spaces on the lot across from Three Dogs tavern. The residential component of the project would be built above the market, and range from 700 to 1400 square feet, with a market price target between $275,000 and $400,000.

The market is described by Kratzer as a “Tony’s Meats” type of packaged foods store. Construction would likely start in 2007.